im 




Class Jl3_Qi 
Book .l l ? 5 



THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS, 



THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS. 



A¥ HISTORICAL SERMON 



PREACHED IN THE 



PHILADELPHIA, 



FAST DAY, JANUARY 4, 18G1. 

BY 

GEORGE DUFFIELD, JR., 

PASTOR. 

WITHfCOPIOUS NOTES, AND AN APPENDIX. 



"The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, tJiat God governs 
ill the affairs of men." — Benjamin Franklin. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
PUBLISHED BY T. B. PUGH^ 

S. W. COR. SIXTH & CHESTNUT STS. 

1861. 






Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on 
the wheels. 

And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter: 
so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 

house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. 
Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, house of 
Israel. 

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a king- 
dom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it : 

If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will 
repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 

And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a 
kingdom, to build and to plant it ; 

If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then will I repent of the 
good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. — Jeremiah xviii. 3-10. 



HENUY B. ASHMEAD, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 
Nos. 1 102 and 1104 Sansorn Street. 



PEEFACE. 



The history of this Sermon is a very simple one. The phrase 
"National Sins" in the President's Proclamation, suggested an in- 
quiry as to what these sins were ? One of the sources of information 
on this topic, it occurred to us, would be the sermons that had been 
delivered on other National Fast Days. Many such being just at our 
hand, we turned them over with no little interest and curiosity. The 
more we " touched the bones of the prophets," the more we felt that 
virtue came out of them. 

" Faithful men," indeed, were those old Fathers, to whom the Gos- 
pel in all its relations, both temporal and eternal, might be most safely 
entrusted I Though a reward was offered for their heads, they 
preached ; though a Tory party in the Church might wish to keep them 
quiet, still they preached ; though their brethren not infrequently 
found vehement fault with them for so doing, yet, the Word of God 
" burning like a fire in their bones," they could not do otherwise than 
preach. The Chinese idea which so many have been endeavoring to 
inculcate of late, that "to speak of politics is to be guilty of death," 
by such men as Mayhew, Witherspoon, Emmons, &c., would have been 
laughed to scorn ! " Dumb dogs that cannot bark," could not be said 
of them, any more than of Calvin, and Knox, and the staunch old 
English Puritans ! Thank God that such men lived on this side of 
the Atlantic, as well as the other ! 

There is no excuse for us if we do not try, at least, to imitate their 
example. If ever the pulpit is to regain that influence which it has 
lost in our land, it must be by preaching occasionally such ^rmons as 
that of Dr. Langdon,* " Governments corrupted hy vice, and restored 
hy virtue," May 31st, 1775, from a favorite text in those times, 
Isaiah i. 26. "And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy 

* See the " Pulpit of the American Revolution ; or, the Political Sei-mons of 
the period of 177G," by John Wingate Thornton, Boston, 1860. 



counsellors as at the beginning." As ministers we must study, and 
quote, and preach upon that other text as often as they did, viz. : Is. Ix. 
12. "The Nation that will not serve Thee, shall perish;" further en- 
forced by Jeremiah xviii. 3-10. The hitherto unpublished document 
of the old Chaplain in the Appendix, will show how far we have 
drifted, wo greatly fear, in the wrong direction. Stirring times may 
be before us, and that very speedily; ''wherefore, let us gird up the 
loins of our mind, be sober, and hope to the end !" Should our hum- 
ble eifort in this discourse be of no further service, it may at least 
save some valuable ministerial time in the way of reference. The 
man who would write a good religious history of this Nation, could 
scarcely do his countrymen a better service. Is it yet too late for 
our American Wilberforce, Theodore Frelinghuysen, to do it? 

G. D., Jr. 
Philadelphia, Jan. 5th, 1861. 

P. S. In the delivery of the Sermon, the details of the third head, 
viz. : " Our National Judgments," were omitted for want of time. 



THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS. 



•• For the Lord spxVKE thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed 

ME that I SHOULD NOT WALK IN THE WAV OF THIS PEOPLE, SAYING, 

Say ye not, A Confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall 
SAY, A Confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. 

Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself; and let him be your fear, 
and let him be your dread. 

And He shall be for a Sanctuary." — Isaiah viii. 11-14. 

" Went to church and fasted all dayT Such is the 
record in the private journal of the great " Father of his 
Country," under date of Wednesday, June 1st, A. D., 
1774 ; a day solemnly appointed by the Assembly of 
Virginia, on hearing of the passage of the Boston Port 
Bill, " as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, to 
avert from us the evils of civil war, and to inspire us 
with firmness in support of our rights."* 

A year later, just after the battles of Lexington and 

* "No example of such a solemnity had existed since the daj's of onr dis- 
tresses in the war of '55, since which a new generation had grown up. With 
the help of Rushworth, whom we rummaged over for the revolutionary pre- 
cedents and forms of the Puritans of those days, preserved by him, we cooked 
up a resolution somewhat modernizing the phrases, for appointing the 1st of 
June, on which the Port Bill was to commence, for a day of fasting." (See 
Jeiferson's Diary.) Does that diary, June 1st, show the same record as 
Washington's? The minute of the House of Commons reads — " That God 
would give them one heart and one mind in carrying on the great work of the 
Lord." Rushworth's Ilistorkal Colloc(io?is, Part iv., Vol. i., pp. 546, G44, as 
quoted liy Wm. B. Reed, Esq., in his Address, Nov. 1st, 1838. 



6 

Bunker Hill, the Old Continental Congress appointed a 
day of General Fast/'' 

On May 17th, 1770, "which was kept as a national 
fast, George Duffield, the minister of the Third Presby- 
terian Church in Philadelphia, with John Adams for a 
listener, drew a parallel between George the First and 
Pharaoh, and inferred that the same Providence of God 
which had rescued the Israelites, intended to free the 
Americans."f 

Could it have been in remembrance of this day in Old 
Pine Street, that " unfashionable as the faith in an over- 
ruling Providence" then was, this same John Adams was 
not ashamed to proclaim another National Fast, May 
9 th, 1798 ? Was it an evidence of the value of such a 
day, that even though hostilities had actually commenced 
between the United States and France, and a vessel of 
each nation had suffered capture, that such a body of 
men as the French Director!/, so speedily and unex- 
pectedly made overtures of peace, and that of their own 
accord ? 

In the fourth year of the second war with Great Bri- 
tain, the example of John Adams was followed by Pre- 
sident Madison, and January 12 th, 1815, was recom- 
mended by him as a National Fast Day. 

Even while the people were yet speaking, He "in 
whose hand the king's heart is as the rivers of water ; 

* "Memorable to distant ages should be the 20th of July, iV'i'S, observed 
throughout the Continent as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, and 
one of the most solemn days she ever saw. When the injured millions of 
America, prostrate before the throne of the Eternal, poured out their com- 
plaint, and sent their cry to him that judgcth rightly." Fast Day Sermon of 
J. M. Mason, D.D., New York, Sept. 20tli, 1793. Our National Tacitus makes 
no mention of it! 

f Bnncrcfl, Vol. viii,, p. .')85. 



and who turneth it whithersoever he will," heard their 
prayer ; and only one month after, February 18th, 1815, 
they received " an answer of peace," Hterally, and had 
the privilege of celebrating a day of National Thanks- 
giving.* 

The last two days of this character are within the re- 
collection of nearly all here present, viz. : May 14th, 
1841, being the day of national fast recommended by 
Mr. Tyler on the decease of President Harrison; and 
August 3d, 1849, the fast day recommended by Presi- 
dent Taylor, that Grod in mercy would arrest the further 
progress of the cholera. 

Once more, and it may be for the last time, a Procla- 
mation comes from the President to the people of the 
United? States, designating this 4th day of January, 
1861, as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, 
throughout the Union, that God may " remember us as 
he did our fathers." 

As Presbyterians, we are in no doubt as to the pro- 
'priety of observing this day. " If at any time," says 
our excellent Directory for worship, "the civil power 
should think it proper to appoint a fast, it is the duty of 
the ministers and people of our communion, as ive live 
under a christian government, to pay aU due respect to the 
same." We are at no loss as to the manner of observing 
the day. " There shall be public worship upon all such 
days, and let the prayers, psalms, portions of Scripture 
to be read, and sermons, be all in a special manner 
adapted to the occasion." As to the character of the 
prayers and sermon, the book is even more explicit still. • 
" On fast-days let the minister point out the authority 

* So in 1777, 1779, 1780, 1781, 1782, days of fasting were observed by in- 
vitation of Congress. 



and providences calling to the observation thereof; and let 
him spend a more than usual portion of time, in solemn 
prayer, particularly confession of sin, especially of the 
day and place, with their aggravations, which have 
brought down the judgment of heaven. And let the 
whole day be spent in deep humiliation and mourning 
before God." 

Evidently in the minds of those who framed the Con- 
stitution of the American Presbyterian Church (adopted 
in the same year, and framed by some of the same men 
who framed our National Constitution, now in such im- 
minent danger), the proper observance of such a day as 
this, both on the part of minister and people, was con- 
sidered by them one of the most solemn and important 
duties that could possibly be discharged on earth.'''* 

* To say nothing of the Biblical, and Trans-atlantic history of such days, 
they remembered the first fast-day in New England, July, 1G21. "Though in 
the morning when we were assembled together, the heavens were as clear and 
the drought as like to continue as ever it was, yet (our exercise continuing 
some eight or nine hours) before our departure, the weather was overcast, the 
clouds gathered together on all sides," and on the next morning distilled such 
soft, sweet, and moderate showers of rain, and mixed with such seasonable 
weather, as it was hard to say whether our withered corn or drooping affec- 
tions were most quickened or revived. Such was the bounty and goodness of 
our God." Hobomok and the Indians were astonished to behold ! ^^ Journal 
of the Pilgrims at Flpmouth,'' edited by Dr. Cheever, New York, 1848, p. 284. 
Also a similar day in 1631. " The last batch of bread was in the Governor's 
oven. But God, who delights to appear in greatest straits, did work miirvel- 
lously at this time ; for before the very day appointed to seek the Lord by 
fasting and prayer, in comes Mr. Pearce (in a ship from Ireland), laden with pro- 
visions. Upon which occasion the Fast Day was changed, and ordered to be 
kept as a Day of Thanksgiving." — Yowiff's Chronicles of 3fassackuse(ls, p. 385. 

Doubtless, also, they were well aware of the memorable fast-day in 1 74G. 
" As an inhabitant of New England, I am bound solemnly to declare, that 
were there no other instances to be found in any other country, the blessings 
communicated to this would furnish ample satisfaction, concerning this sub- 
ject, to every sober, much more to every pious man. Among these the destruc- 
tion of the French Armament under the Dulie D'Anville, in the year 1746, ought 



9 

" When the lion roars it becomes us to fear ; when God's 
hand is lifted up, and he appears about to strike, it is 
high time for us to strip ourselves of our ornaments, and 
to lie down in sackcloth and ashes."''' As one of the 
watchmen on the walls of Zion, appointed of the Lord, 
if appointed at all, in Israel, " to hear the word at my 
mouth, and give them warning from me,'' I must confess 
in all sincerity of heart, that never did I enter the House 
of Prayer on so solemn an occasion as the present — 
never did I venture to speak under a more tremendous 
pressure of personal and relative responsibility, to blow 
the trumpet with no uncertain sound ! Business pausing 
in the midst of the week, and closing her shops, and 
stores, and factories ! Pteligion throwing open her thou- 
sand temples, to invite within them those who believe 
that "only the omnipotent arm of God can save us from 
the awful effects of our follies and our crimes ;" he 
only will speak aright at such a time as this, to whom 
God shall speak "with a strong hand," and whom he will 
instruct accordingly. When '.'the voice of the Lord is 
upon the waters, and the God of glory thundereth," all 
that man can say, is only as the faint echo that dies on 
the distant shore. 

As appropriate to the occasion that has brought us 
together this morning, I propose, for the most part, in 
the way of an humble chronicler of the dealings of God 

to be remembered with gratitude and admiration, by every inhabitant of this 
country. This fleet consisted of forty ships of war ; was destined for the de- 
struction of New England ; was of sufficient force to render that destruction 
in the ordinary progress of things, certain ; sailed from Chebucto, in Nova 
Scotia, for this purpose; and was entirely destroyed, on the night following a 
general fast throughout New England, by a terrible tempest." — See Dwight's 
Theology, Yo\. iv., p. 127. 
. * Th. Boston's Memorial Anait Fasting, p. 320, Am. Ed. 



10 

with us, in our moral history as a nation, to direct your 
thoughts. 

I. To Our National Mercies. 
II. Our National Sins. 

III. Our National Judgments. 

IV. Our National Position. 
V. Our National Duties. 

I. Our National Mercies.* 

As with individuals, nothing is better calculated to 
lead them to repentance, than a contemplation of the 
goodness of God, (Romans ii. 4), so it is with nations; 
and if it was a standing injunction to ancient Israel, 
" Remember all the way that the Lord thy God hath led 
thee to humble thee, and to prove thee, and to know 
what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his 
commandments or not;" (Deut. viii. 2.) Is not the 
spirit of this injunction especially binding upon our- 
selves ? You trace the forming and sustaining hand of 
God in the growth and full development of the human 
body, and in view of your own personal history in this 
respect, gratefully confess with Addison, 

"When in the slippery paths of youth, 
With heedless steps I ran, 
Thine arm unseen conveyed me safe, 
And led me up to man ! 

Why not in a similar manner trace the history of His 
Providence in the growth and formation of the body 
politic ? 

Who held this land in reserve for us like an inherit- 

* " It is by the light of history that we discern the interests of a country, 
and the means by which these can be pursued and secured." — Governeur 
Morrin. 



11 

aiice, waiting for an heir, until the time had come when 
we could enter in and possess it to the best advantage? 
Who colonized this land, not only " winnowing three king- 
doms to find the seed with which to plant it, but sifting 
that seed over again?" Who wisely chose the time to 
sow this seed, when the long night of political and eccle- 
siastical despotism had begun to wane, and the better 
ideas of civil and religious liberty to prevail, as the price- 
less legacy of Martin Luther and the Reformation? Who 
prepared the inhabitants of the Thirteen '-Protestant Colo- 
nies"* to become a nation, by such a series of events, 
both in the old world and the new, than which there 
could be none more appropriate and efficient to accom- 
plish this result ? In the days of drought, and famine, 
and pestilence; in the Old French War; and in their 
various conflicts with fierce and merciless savages in 
" the waste howling wilderness," who delivered them ? 
In the seven long years of the Hevolutionary struggle, 
who put wisdom in their minds, courage in their hearts, 
and strength in their arms, and sustained them against 
such tremendous odds, and in the midst of such innu- 
merable disadvantages, enabled them at length to tri- 
umph, and to show to the world that their "Declaration 
OF Independence" was not made in vain ? 

A thousand-fold more difficult'even'than the termina- 
tion of a civil war, who, after their original confederation 
had proved confessedly a failure, gave wisdom to our 
Fathers to organize a government, and achieve our 

• So the phrase rau in the days of William Pitt; now at the Centennial of 
Fort Duquesne, and in our common school histories it Tea,ds ^^ Anfflo-Sazon" 
Colonies ! "Behold a country * * given to us and to our posterity, to spread 
'abroad the pure evangelical religion of Jesus ! Behold colonies founded in it I 
Protestant Colonics ! Free Colonics, &c." Srvc?i Mililarij Sermons of Wm. 
Smith, D.D., Vol. ii.. p. \12 Phihulclphia, Ai)ril 5, lYr.Y. 



12 

mjitchless Constitution, the real source under God of 
OUR unexampled National PROsrERiTY? "Ask thy 
fathers, and they will show thee ; thy elders, and they 
will tell thee? It is the Most High that divideth unto 
the nation their inheritance." "As an eagle stirreth up 
her nest,"^' fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad 
her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so 
the Lord alone did lead them." (Deut. xxxii. 11.) 

But these were only blessings of the "nether springs." 
In the enumeration of our national mercies, we would re- 
member with ever fresh and increasing gratitude, the in- 
finitely greater and more important blessings of "the 
upper springs." The Great Awakening in the East in 
1734; the "Old Revival" in the West and South in 
1800; the no less powerful revival of 1831 in the New 
and Middle States; and more than all, the Pentecostal 
year of 1858, when the copious showers of divine grace 
covered, to some extent, the entire country! These were 
tokens of the divine favor, than which Scotland herself, 
among all her " crowning mercies," never received any 
more significant. Dear as America is to the heart of a 
patriot as the Land of Liberty, she is still more dear to 
the heart of the patriot Christian as "' The Land of Re- 
viVALS."f Born as' the child of his Providence, she was 
acknowledged and baptized as such by his Holy Spirit. 
And if as early as 1793, our Father^ were accustomed 
to say, " There is no nation under heaven for which God 
hath done so much in so short a time, as he has done for 
America," what would they say now ? 

* The young American Eagle forgets who taught her to fl}-. 

f It is a dangerous thing to speak against Revivals. From the day that 
Theodore Parker did it, may be dated the decline and fall of the most danger- 
ous popularity ever possessed by any speaker or writer iu our land. 



13 

II. Our National Sins. 

As this term is in many minds ambiguous, and to 
some perhaps appears without any real foundation in 
fact, permit a word of explanation. By " National Sins," 
we mean those that are common to a people, and in some 
respects, like their customs, dress, or language, altogether 
peculiar to them. Strictly speaking, indeed, such a sin 
is one of which the great majority of the people are 
guilty; or of which the rulers representing them are 
guilty in their name; or of which the peojDle themselves, 
though not the actual transgressors, yet by strengthening 
the hands of the evil doers, become the guilty partici- 
pants.''' Meanwhile, remembering that God always ad- 
dresses men in the language of common sense, and does 
not refine aw^ay vice or crime, as man does, into meta- 
physical abstractions, (Isaiah v. 20), perhaps a simpler 
definition would be a better one, viz., that National Sins 
are the sins of the nation — public iniquity being nothing 
else than the accumulated transgressions of private indi- 
viduals. The sins that w^e are this day to confess in the 
closet, at the family altar, and in the great congregation, 
are those gross, and greatly aggravated, and still increas- 
ing sins, that " declare themselves as Sodom ;" as well as 
the sins of our Presidents, and Members of Congress, 
and Ministers Plenipotentiary. The transgressions of 
subjects " defile a land," and help to fill up the cup of its 
iniquity as w^ell as those of rulers.f " Ye have robbed 
me, even this whole nation," and as a nation he will 

* See " National Sins to be repented of, as ever we expect National Mer- 
cies." — Cripplegate Morning Exercises, Vol. iv. p. 585. 

t"VlCE IS THE DISEASE OF WHICH NATIONS DIE." WiLLIAM PeNN. "By 

swearing and lying, and killing, and stealiag, and committing adultery, they 
break out, and blood toucheth blood." Hosea iv. 2. 



14 

hold us responsible for this robbery of his service and 
honor, just as much as he did Israel, and Babylon, 
and Persia, and Greece, and Rome. To deny that God 
is " The Governor of the Nations," (Ps. xxii. 28), is to 
deny His Divine Providence ;* and to deny the Provi- 
dence of God is to deny his attributes. " His omnis- 
cience which is the eye of Providence ; his mercy and jus- 
tice which are the arms of it; his j^ower which is its life; 
his wisdom which is the rudder whereby it is steered; 
his holiness, which is the compass and rule of its motion." 
( CharnocJc.) But who with the history of the world before 
him, of its universal empires, its various nations, its me- 
tropolitan cities, will dare to deny that " the Judge of all 
the Earth," is just as much its judge as in the days of 
Abraham; and that he will "do right" when men do 
wrong, and punish them as their crimes deserve ? 

The connection between personal sins and national 
sins, the moral succession of guilt, is just as obvious, 
as "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn 
in the ear," in the harvest that is ripening for the sickle. 

Our first national sin, if we are to believe the testi- 
mony of the Fathers, was Ingratitude. 

Beginning with individuals, who, like Hezekiah, "ren- 
dered not again according to the benefit done unto them," 
(2 Chron. xxxii. 25), the little leaven gradually per- 
vaded the whole lump. It was the old story of Israel 
and human nature over again. " Jeshurun waxed fat, 
and kicked." Temporal prosperity was too much for 
him.f " Then he forsook G^od which made him, and 

* Acknowledged in the Declaration of Independence. 

f Jeshurun began to kick very early. In the " First Sermon ever preached 
in New England (1 Cor. x. 24), the first printed, and the oldest American Dis- 
course extant, delivered at Plymouth, A. D., 1621, by Robert Cushman," he 
says : " It is reported that there are many men gone to that other plantation in 







15 

lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation."* (Deut. 
xxxii. 15.) 

Our second sin was Infidelity. The "Age of Rea- 
son" it was supposed had dawned in France. Under the 
pretence of an enlarged philanthropy, and of giving to 
mankind liberty, equality, fraternity, the French Com- 

Virginia, -n-hich, whilst thej lived ia England, seemed very pious, zealous, and 
conscionable ; and have now lost even the sajj of grace, and edge to all good- 
ness ; and are become mere worldlings. This testimony I believe to be partly 
true," p. 33. 

* " That no notice whatever should be taken of that God who planteth a 
nation, and plucketh it up at his pleasure, is an omission which no pretext 
whatever can palliate. Had such a momentous business been transacted by 
Mohammedans^ they would have begun, " In the name of God." Even the sava- 
ges, whom we despise, setting a better example, would have paid some homage 
to the Great Spirit. But from the Constitution of the United States, it is impos- 
sible to ascertain what God we worship ; or whether we own a God at all. * * 
Should the citizens of America be as irreligious as her Constitution, we will 
have reason to tremble, lest the Governor of the Universe, who will not be 
treated with indignity by a people, any more than by individuals, overturn, 
from its foundation, the fabric we have been rearing, and crush us to atoms in 
the wreck." — Works of J. M. Mason, D. D., Vol. i., p. 50. 

Was this omission intentional, as in the original draft of the Declaration of 
Independence ? or was it a moral oversight,* even greater than the tremendous 
political oversight in the original " Articles of Confederation ?" " Is it not 
strange that it appears not to have been perceived by any one at the time that 
the whole of this controversy arose out of a departure from the principles of the 
Declaration of ludepedence, and the substitution of State sovereignty, instead 
of the constituent sovereignty of the people, as the foundation of the Revolu- 
tion and the Union?" — '■'■Jubilee of the Constitution," by John Quincy Adams, 
April 30th, 1839, pp. 30-36. ..v-: , ■ 

We cannot resist another quotation from this invaluable address of the " Old 
Man Eloquent." "I speak to matters of fact. There is the Declaration of 
Independence, and there is the Constitution of the United States — let them 
speak for themselves. The grossly immoral and dishonest doctrine of despotic 
State sovereignty, the exclusive judge of its own obligation, and responsible to 
no power on earth or in heaven for the violation of them, is not there. The 
Declaration says, it is not in me. The Constitution says, it is not in me." p. 41. 

" The Constitution was the consummation of the Declaration op Independ- .f/^^ 
ENCE." Oration, July 4th, 1837, p. 44. •^^^' ^,,,^ 

* namilton said to Dr. Rodgers, " Indeed, Dr., we forgot it !" 



^.-A-r -■ <^i 



16 

mittee of Public Instruction had demonstrated to their 
own satisfaction that Christianity was false; but unfor- 
tunately had failed to demonstrate that anything else 
was true. The belief of a God, of the immortality of 
the soul, and of moral obligation, was not only to be 
blotted out in Europe, but the same thing must be done 
in America. The Atheistic philosophy of Voltaire, Ros- 
seau, and others, re-produced by Thomas Paine, spread 
like a pestilence, especially am-ong young men, from indi- 
viduals to cliques, from cliques to parties, until at length 
in the person of the third President of the United States, 
infidelity obtained a national triumph. 

No day of fasting and prayer during that administra- 
tion ! Constitutional scruples would not permit it !* No- 
thing of that reverence for "the divine author of our 
holy religion," that was so universally seen in the ex- 
ample of Washington ; but that example despised, and 
his good name calumniated. The words of the Prophet 
(Hosea vii. 5), again had their meaning. "In the day 
of our king, the princes have made him sick with bottles 
of wine : he stretched out his hand with scorners." Then 
f\x^i, political principles tveremade the sole test of a maris 
fitness for office, independent of Ms moral or religious cha- 
racter:\ With what result has been lamentahly illus- 
trated in the history of the nation ever since. J The 
poison then infused into the veins of the body politic, it 
is greatly to be feared is still working, and will work for 
evil to the end of time. Of the Dragon's teeth then 

* But these scruples did not permit the purchase of Louisiana, even if the 
Constitution must afterwards be amended so as to sanction it. 

f See Appendix A, for the opinion of one of the Fathers. 

X See the "Jeroboam" sermon of Dr. Emmons, 1801. "Prayer for the 
defeat of those who attempt to subvert good government." National Fast, 
May 9th, 1798, 2 Sam. xv. 31 ; and Vol. ii. of his Works throughout. 



17 

sown, we are even now beginning to reap the Cadmean 
harvest, and our confession this day may well be, as a 
nation, " Thou writest bitter things against me, and 
makest me to possess the sins of myyouth." (Job xiii. 26.) 

Our third national sin, was our violation of the 
Lord's Day. What this day was in the early history 
of New England, how it was observed by Washington 
and our army during the Revolution, you are all well 
aware. But when infidel France had abolished the 
Sabbath, America, fast following in her steps, must try 
and do the same. For a time, however, the friends of 
the Sabbath maintained a steady and successful opposi- 
tion. Such laws as those of the State of New York, in 
1788, and of Pennsylvania in 1794, (which did such 
good service two years since, in stopping the city rail- 
roads of Philadelphia), showed that the people were 
right, though many of those highest in authority over 
them were wrong. Very interesting is it to read such a 
passage as this, and especially to mark the italics. 
" Wise rulers, who wish rather to prevent crimes than to 
punish them, ivill take care, both hy iwecept and examjple, 
to promote the sanctification of the Christian jSabhath."''^ 

But soon the laws began to be a dead letter ; as after- 
wards in the cause of Temperance, those sworn to exe- 
cute them allowed the Sabbath-breakers to escape, and 
thus themselves became guilty of the equally dreadful 
crime of perjury. Worse and still worse did things be- 
come, down to the war of 1812, when a New York Sab- 
bath had become almost equal to that of New Orleans, 
for the flagrant violation of christian principle, on the 
part of men in authority, by " reviewing troops for mere 
parade." But it was not until 1829, that our National 

* " A Concise and Faithful Narrative," p. 70. 



18 

Sin in this respect fairly culminated. It had always 
been a source of grief to the christian heart, that ever 
since the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the Lord's 
day had been profaned by the carriage and opening of 
the mail.* In 1828, the National Sabbath Union was es- 
tabhshed, and in 1829, the christian citizens of these 
United States presented a memorial against Sunday 
mails, of which, says the Report to the House of Repre- 
sentatives, " It is believed that the history of legislation 
in this country affords no instance in which a stronger 
expression has been made, if regard be had to the num- 
ber, the wealth, or the intelligence of the petitioners." 
And yet what was the result of this appeal ? A polite 
report in the House declaring the measure proposed, in 
the memorial impracticable : and Mr. Johnson's " very 
unjust and bitter" report in the Senate, equally disre- 
spectful to the memorialists, and insulting to religion ; a 
document, that on such a day as this, we can only re- 
member as a disgrace to our archives, and a bold and 
open affront put upon the God of our Fathers in the 
face of the whole nation! 

A fourth National Sin, for which we should this day 
greatly humble ourselves before God, and of which it is 
a shame even to speak, is Adultery. 

The days of the " Scarlet Letter" soon passed away,f 
and at each successive period in the history of our coun- 
try, as we contemplate the geometrical progression of 
this crime in various forms, it is like the prophet Ezekiel 

* The opening of the Post Offices for part of the Sabbfitb day, was a prac- 
tice gradually introduced; at first without any requirements of law. In 1810, 
a section was introduced regulating the Department, by which Postmasters 
were obliged to deliyer letters at all reasonable hours on every day of the week. 
I " Credo pudicitiam Saturno rege moratam, 
In terris visamque." — Juvenal. 



19 

looking through " the hole in the wall" in Jerusalem 
each time to behold even "greater abominations" than 
before ! The innumerable books of obscenity, of which 
the "Age of Reason" was the prolific and accursed 
mother; the scandalous cases of divorces daily occur- 
ring, the indefinite multiplication of legislative facilities 
for obtaining a dissolution of the bonds of marriage ; and 
above all, the toleration and virtual sanction by the pre- 
sent and former Administration, of adultery, in the bar- 
barous form of polygamy in Utah ! Our heart sickens 
and shudders at such a disgusting recital ! Two years 
since at Washington, in sight of the Presidential mansion, 
under the very shadow of the Capitol, and among men 
high in official station, there was a development of the 
nature and consequences of this crime, that caused the 
ears of every man in America to tingle ! Like its 
parallel tragedy in ancient Gibeah, " There was no such 
deed done nor seen from the day that the children of 
Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day."* 
(Judges xix. 30.) 

A. fifth National Sin is Murder. 

Now seen in the form of homicide; then of duelling, es- 
pecially at the National Capital, among our rulers ; again 
in that of " Lynch Law," well called by this name, as nei- 
ther the law of God, nor of man ; still more frequently 
seen in the " street fight,"f or the armed encounter, or 

* Thieves ! Drunkards! Adulterers! MURDERERS! among our rulers at 
Washington, TRAITORS in the Cabinet! Surely the old maxim is still 
true of the high places of power, that "like the tops of the pyramids, reptiles 
can crawl there, as well as eagles fly 1" 

f " A species of common law has grown up in Kentucky, which, were it 
written down, would, in all civilized countries, cause it to be re-christened in 
derision, the land of blood. Hen slaughter each other with perfect impunity." — 
Governor's Message, 1837. 



20 

most disgraceful of all, tlie assassin's club even in the 
Senate Chamber.'^' What shall we say to these things this 
day, but with the Prophet, "• The iniquity of the house of 
Israel, and of Judah (of both State and National Go- 
vernments), is exceeding great. The land is full of 
BLOOD, and the city of wresting of judgment ; for they 
say, " The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord 
seeth not." (Ezekiel ix. 9.) '"' Shall I not visit for these 
things ? saith the Lord : and shall not my soul be avenged 
on such a nation as this?" (Jer. v. 9.) ! if all "the 
blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foun- 
dation of the world, from the blood of Abel unto the 
blood of Zacharias which perished between the altar and 
the temple," was required of the generation in the days 
of Christ, how terrific will be the account of that gene- 
ration in our history, when the same retributive Provi- 
dence shall demand payment in kind, and make inqui- 
sition for the blood of the innocent that is found in our 
skirts ! May God in infinite mercy grant, that we may, 
this day, so heartily repent of our sins, that the atoning 
generation may not be our own ! 

A sixth National Sin is Intemperance. 

True, our Presidents have, most of them over their own 
names, recorded their testimony against the use of alco- 
holic liquors as a beverage. Societies have been formed in 
Congress, and for a brief period, borne gallantly the Tem- 
perance banner in the face of 023posing hosts; but the 

* We had it at the time, through a sure liand, from one who ought to know, 
that a near friend and a personal relative of the injured Senator, had determined 
in their indignation to administer personal chastisement after his own fashion 
to the cowardly assailant, and that nothing but the most energetic and decisive 
remonstrance on the jiart of the Senator himself, prevented it from being 
done. Did he remember Hebrews x. 30, " Vengeance belongeth unto me, I 
will recompense, saith the Lord." If so, the recompense has come speedily I 



21 

abounding flood of iniquity has soon swept them away ; 
and at this very moment the Minotaur at the Capitol is 
stronger, and fiercer, and more rapacious than ever! To 
our everlasting shame as Americans, must we record the 
fact, that the first sight we ever had of a Senator, and 
of Members of Congress at Washington, was that of 
three men staggering in the street, drunk, from the 
dinner table, during the Christmas holidays of 1847! 
God help the wife when she has no arm to lean upon 
but that of a drunken husband ! God help the nation, 
when her rulers are " mighty to drink wine, and men 
of strength to mingle strong drink." Too often such men 
are mighty in nothing else ! 

A seventh sin of the nation, and pre-eminently the sin 
in the eyes of the whole civilized world, is that of Cove- 
TOUSNESS and Oppression. 

The time was in the history of our people, when 
honesty went before wealth, and a "good name was rather 
to be chosen than great riches ;" when men expected to 
secure a competence by industry and economy in the 
regular course of their business ; when the principle on 
which they conducted their dealings, was that of equity 
and mutual advantage between buyer and seller ;* when 
the spirit as well as the letter of the eighth command- 
ment was adhered to, which requires in all cases a fair 

* A well known leather dealer in'- The Swamp," New York, was one day 
overreached by a sharp customer. "I will give you that bundle of skins it 
you never enter my store again." "Agreed." "But if you do enter it, you 
must pay me for it." It was a bargain. Years passed on, and a very, very 

dilapidated looking customer entered Mr. 's counting room. " Pay me 

for those skins." " I can't. I have been unfortunate !" " Knew you would fail," 
said the old man, " knew it. Glad jom ain't in my debt. Wanted to keep all 
the profits toyourself! Nothing like leather and — honesty!" The anecdote in- 
volves a far-reaching principle both of moral and political economy, that 
"capital owning labor'' would do well to consider. 



22 

equivalent; when the expression " a fair business tran- 
saction," was not synonymous as it often now is with le- 
galized robbery, and when a "failure" was as rare as 
snow in harvest.* States and cities had not yet learned 
a new way of paying old debts by repudia,tion, or indi- 
viduals of deeming themselves released from moral obli- 
gation by taking advantage of a National Bankrupt Law. 
Yet such was one form of national guilt and disgrace in 
which our evil covetousness terminated at last If 

There is another and much graver form in which this 
covetousness has developed itself, not merely to the in- 
jury of individuals, but of whole races and nations. 
Three crimes especially stand out in our Annals, for 
which, as surely as " The Lord executeth righteousness 
and judgment for all that are oppressed," (Ps. ciii. G,) so 
surely will he one day, if not now, call us to a most tre- 
mendous retribution. 

* "At that time (A. D. 1800), here in Bloomfield, N.J., we heard that Mr. 

, down in Newark, had failed, and we all wondered what the people of 

Newark had done so evil, that such a judgment should come upon them." — 
Eev. Stephen Dodd, in a familiar lecture, 1850. 

f " This monstrous form of public debauchery, the repudiation of State debts, 
rivals the catalogue of State vices the world over. The burning indignation 
and sarcasm of a Juvenal would have found nothing to surpass it, in mean- 
ness, in cowardice, in falsehood, in iniquity, even among the rotting corrup- 
tions of public and private morals in the carcass of the Roman Empire. 
And what argues, and no wonder that it should, to the mind of observers from 
abroad, a portentous dereliction of moral principle and public conscience 
throughout the whole country, is the callousness, the apathy, the cool endu- 
rance with which the proposition of such perfidious, such swindling, such 
sweeping insolvency, has been received. Surely if we go on in this way, we 
shall become a by-word to the nations. It will no longer be Punica fides that 
points the moral of the school boy, and tips the arrow of the public satirist 
with gall." — Address before the New England Society, Dec. 22, 1842. Not from 
Sydney Smith, but from one who will hereafter rank in our annals like Elijah 
among the Prophets. A man who finds himself almost the only one awake in 
a burning house, may well be excused if he bursts through doors, and breaks 
in windows! 



23 

We have wronged The Indian. 

We have smoked the calumet, and exchanged the wam- 
pum with him, only to put out the light of his council 
fire, and to drive him from the grave of his fathers. 
What was originally the sin of individuals, and that of 
Georgia and other States; in 1830, became the gigantic 
crime of the nation. Prophecy then is history now, and 
if there is still such a thing left as a national conscience, 
this item in the bill of Grod's indictment against us will 
not this day be regarded by us as the least. While 
the Government was still pausing on the banks of the 
Rubicon, Jeremiah Evarts"-' declared in words that 
thrilled the heart of the entire nation, " If our rulers 
proceed, it will be known by all men that in a plain case, 
without any plausible plea of necessity, and for very 
weak and satisfactory reasons, the great Republic of the 
United States of North America incurred the guilt of vio- 
lating treaties; and that this guilt was incurred, when 
the subject was fairly before the eyes of the American 
community, and had attracted more attention than any 
other pubhc measure since the close of the last war."f 
Our sin has therefore been doubly aggravated; against 
justice; against light . Tell us not that the Supreme 
Court of the United States declared the Acts of the Le- 
gislature of Georgia to be unconstitutional ! This is but 
another aggravation of our sin ! Notwithstanding this 
decision, the President advised the Indians " to abide the 
issue of their new relations without any hope that he ivould 

* We do not forget the eloquence and philanthropy of Spragiie, and Freling- 
huysen, and others; but the name of the author of the "William Penn" 
essays (twenty-four in number, and republished in more than one hundred 
newspapers through the country), and the editor of the Speeches on the Indian 
Bill, 1830, must always \>q facile princeps. 

f Life of Evarts, p. :M(',. 



24 

interfere^'''' and delivered them into the hands of their 
OPPRESSORS ! True, the oppressors " succeeded in making 
the Indian subject a ^^ar^'y question,"f and so carried it by 
the aid of those who acted on the maxim, " all's fair in 
politics ;" " Religion has nothing to do with pohtics," 
&c. \X but the truth of these maxims must be demon- 
strated elsewhere than from the Word of God.§ 

We have wronged the Mexican. 

Our war with this sister Republic was avowedly a War 
OF Conquest. II Ahab looks out of his window, and desires 

* The history of the " Georgia Missionaries" will not soon be forgotten. We 
well remember our horror, as a boy, in looking at the wrists of one, still 
marked by the manacles ! 

f " It is a curious fact that the Pennsylvania Administration men went so 
generally for the Indians, and the New York men universally against them. I 
can account for it only as an honor conferred by Providence on Pennsylvania, 
as a consequence of the upright conduct of the founder of that State in his 
treatment of the natives." — Evarts Life, p. 379. 

X They have a singular definition for this word "politics" in Washington. 
Our excellent brother. Dr. Sunderland, in his Thanksgiving Discourse there, 
Nov. 26th, 1854, says : " I shall use the term politics to characterize the dema- 
gogue spirit, than which there can be no greater evil in the Commonwealth." 
If this be the meaning of the word, we sincerely hope that he does not '^preach 
politics I" For our own part, we still hold to the definition of Webster, 
'■^Politics is a system of moral principles and rules for regulating the actions of men, 
so as to secure the safety, peace, and prosperity of a Nation or State." Used in its 
right sense, there can be no greater blessing. 

§ Alas, for the Indian ! Whenever we think of him, it brings to our remem- 
brance those touching lines of Montgomery. 

"Down to the dust, the Carib people passed. 
Like autumn foliage withering in the blast; 
A whole race sunk beneath the oppressor's rod, 
And left a blank among the ivories of God." 

Is it because their " council fire" has been put out, that ours begins to burn 
so dimly? 2 Sam. iii. 39. 

II "Was this to be a War of Conquest? I answer. Yes. Trusting in hea- 
ven (! 1 !), and on the valor of our arms, this shall be a War of Conquest." — 
Congressional Globe, December lOtb, 184G. We are aware that that "pyramid 
of mendacity," the President's Annual Message, Dec. 1846, asserts the contrary- 



25 

to make of the vineyard of Naboth '" a garden of herbs." 
Naboth cannot on any consideration be induced to alienate 
a property which he had derived from his fathers. The 
disappointed king takes to his bed and refuses to eat. 
But Jezebel is ready with her counsel. What cannot be 
gained by fair means, can be compassed by foul. An 
occasion is sought against Naboth, and it is easily found. 
He is condemned to death, and the royal murderer enters 
into possession by right of blood. Such at the time we 
declared to be the true history of the war with Mexico 
in 1847 ; and since then we have seen no reason to alter 
our opinion, but everything to confirm it.'-' The history 
of the Texas iniquity, in executive corruption, deceit and 
outrage, is only equalled in perfidy by that of Kansas.f 
" After the conquest of Asia," says Tacitus, " nothing of 
the ancient integrity of our Fathers was left among us !" 
So was it with our own nation for some time after the 
Annexation of Texas, and the War with Mexico.J 

* See " A Review of the Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War" by Win. 
Jay, 1849. 

f "I acknowledge your speech of January last on the Annexation of Texas. 
I have perused it with much satisfaction , and I deem it perfectly conclusive 
that the Annexation, by concurrent resolution of Congress, was unwarrantable, 
and a usurpation of the Treaty making power ; in every view, violent, unjust, un- 
constitutional, and most pernicious, and unprincipled, and will lead to the ruin 
of the Union!" — Letter of Chancellor Kent. 

X The eagle eye of John Quincy Adams saw through this Texas plot at a 
single glance, that " it was a deliberate and well-digested plan to re-estal)lish 
slavery in Texas, annex that Province to the United States, and thus immensely 
increase the slave territory and influence in the Union."' " Was this an inten- 
tion to conquer Texas to re-establish that slavery which had been abolished by 
the United Mexican States?" — Speech in the House, May, 1836. 

"We trust," said the Charleston Patriot, "That our Southern Representatives 
will remember that this is a Southern War." The Charleston Courier said : 
" Every battle fought in Mexico, and every dollar spent there, but ensures the 
acquisition of territory which must ividen the field of Southern enterprise and 
power for the future. And the final result will be to adjust the whole balance 



26 

We have wronged the Indian, we have wronged the 
Mexican, but their united wrong is but as a drop in the 
bucket, or as the small dust in the balance, compared 
with the enormous wrong of which we have been guilty 
towards the African. 

Like the horrors of heathenism, or the horrors of 
intemperance, or the horrors of war, the time has gone 
by, when the exhausted sensibilities of the nation will 
any longer bear a description in detail of the horrors of 
slavery. We purpose only to glance at this subject 
in brief historic outline, and if we use the word Afri- 
can instead of slave, and say we in our confession of 
guilt, instead of they, we think we have abundant war- 
rant for so doing; for the former, from the example 
of the Master, (Luke xv. 19), "Make me as one of thy 
(slaves ? No !) hired servants ;" and for the latter from 
the universally acknowledged facts in the case. So 
far from being able as a nation to wash our hands with 
Pilate, and wipe our mouth with the adulteress, and 
say, "we have done no wickedness," we are all like 
Joseph's brethren, guilty together, of putting in a pit, or 
selling into Egypt, a man and a brother, who had just as 
much right to liberty as ourselves.* Every additional 
link and fetter that the South has forged, the North has 
welded and riveted ; and but for the undoing of her own 

of power in the Confederacy, so as to give us the control over the operations 
of the Government in all time to come." 

N. B. " Equality of Southern rights" in the Government, an equivoque which 
deceives so many candid minds even yet, means the control of the Govern- 
ment! 

The "just and honorable peace" of Mr. Polk, " consisted in the seizure of 
ONE-HALF OP MEXICO." — See Jay's Review, Boston Edition, 1849. 

* "The pride and boast of America is, that the rights for which she con- 
tended, were the rights of human nature." — Address of Congress, April 18th, 
1783. 



27 

work at the present time, her embarrassment would be 
much more easily surmounted. ^^ Waiving then at this 
point all moral and religious considerations of our duty 
to the African as a man and a brother, of rendering to 
him that which is "just and equal," and of "remembering 
him in bonds as one bound with him," we come to July 
4th, 1776. When the Declaration of Independence was 
signed, and "all men" declared to be "equal," and one 
of their "inalienable rights" affirmed to be liberty, this 
was no doubt good news to the poor African. Had he 
known the sentiments of Washington, and Lafayette, 
and Madison, and all the great and good men of that 
da}', almost without exception,-}- he would have supposed 

* " Thus the present crisis in American affairs seems to me to be the retri- 
butive plague wilh which Providence has visited the land, in punishment of 
its high-handed violence towards weak and peaceable neighbors. For a mo- 
ment the national sin seemed rewarded by glory and prosperity ; but the pun- 
ishment was at hand, and now strife and dissension are consuming the vitals 
of the Nation. So true is it, that Nations, no more than individuals, can sin 
vrith impunity." — " Letters from the Slave States," by James Sterling, London, 
1857. 

f George Washington. " I never mean, unless some particular circum- 
staeces should compel me to it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being 
among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery can be abolished 
by law." Letter to J. F. Mercer, September 9th, 1786. 

James Madison. " It is wrong to admit into the Constitution the idea that 
there can be property in man." 

Lafayette. " I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America, 
if I could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery." 

For Patrick Henry^s testimony, see letter, Appendix B. 

Henry Clay. " So long as God allows the vital current to flow through my 
veins, I will never, never, never, by word or thought, by mind or will, aid in 
admitting one rod of free territory to the everlasting curse of human bondage." 

Daniel Webster. " I never would consent, and never have consented, that 
there should be one foot of slave territory, beyond what the old Thirteen States 
had at the formation of the Union." — Speech at Buffalo, 1851. 

Such the sentiments of the " Father of his Country;" the " Father of the 
Constitution;" and the " Great Expounder of it;" of the "Nation's Guest;" 
and of one whose name was dearer in defeat, to the great American heart in 



28 

that the year of Jubilee to his unhappy nation had come 
indeed. ''' Slavery, in time, will not be a speck in our 
country," said one of the Fathers of the Constitution. 
But years roll on, and so far from hearing the sound of 
the silver trumpet, the African finds that " the sons have 
ceased to cherish the principles of the Withers ;" and 
that the system of oppression for himself and posterity, 
is to be extended. |Tow the area of Freedom is to be 
enlarged by the purchase of Louisiana ; but just also to 
this extent does the poor African learn that it enlarges 
the area of slavery ! Another State knocks for admis- 
sion — it is Missouri — and after a contest that shakes the 
Commonwealth to its foundation, she too is admitted as 
a slave State. But a "Compromise" is effected — a line 
is drawn — " hitherto shall this evil come, and no fur- 
ther !" (Thirty years later, and this line also is oblite- 
rated to carry slavery into Kansas.) Then came the An- 
nexation of Texas.* In 1850, a law is passed, that any one 
who shall " aid, abet, or assist such persons, directly or in- 
directly," to escape, i. e. even give a brother man a piece of 
bread or a drink of water, shall pay a fine of $1000, and 
suffer six months' imprisonment!! Still later comes the 
" Dred Scott" decision, and as far as it can do so, strips 

1844, than his opponent's, in victorj' : to how great an extent have they been 
forgotten ! 

Let us hear what the Arch Trajtor and Secessionist, whose glory it is to 
have " precipitated the Cotton States into a revolution," says of these vene- 
rable men. '• The Old Fogies of that day entertained opinions in relation to slavery, 
which we of this day are unanimously agreed were not sound.'" Yancey's speech 
at Montgomery, Alabama, May, 1858, on the subject of re-opening the African 
Slave-trade. 

* "It is a little humiliating that the United States, that is, WE — have given 
Texas ten millions of dollars for a part of the lands which belonged to us, and 
not to her, and left in her hands twenty-five thousand square miles of our own 
territory, as a bribe or bonus, in order to malie the ten millions go down with 
a better relish!" — Dr. Beman's Thanksgiving Sermon, 1850. 



29 

the poor African of the very last vestige of his rights^ 
and makes National and perpetual, a system which our 
fathers intended only to be local and temporary ! Last 
of all comes the re-opening of the Slave-trade!* If in 
other respects we have this day reason to deprecate the 
avenging wrath of God, most of all have we occasion so 
to do because of the sin of '^ OrpREssiON." " This is the 
portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of 
oppressors which they shall receive of the Almighty. * '^'* 
If his children be multipHed, it is for the sword, and his 
offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. Those that 
remain of him shall be burned in death, and his widows 
shall not weep." (Job xxvii. 13-15.) The principle is 
equally true of a Commonwealth ! 

III. Our National Judgments. 

"When the land sinneth against me by trespassing 
grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it ; 
and ye shall know that I have not done ivitlioid cause all 
that I have done in it, saith the Lord." (Ezekiel xiv. 
12-23. 

God punishes men in that capacity in which they sin. 
" Individual sins meet with individual punishments ; 

* Let those who suppose that the final suppression of the slave-trade was 
provided for by the Ashburtou Treatj- of 1842, read the Appeal of the Society 
of Friends in 1858, especially the Appendix, p. 41. After a long list of ves- 
sels, class, name, and fate, they say : Thus we see, that though vessels have 
been captured and condemned, there has been but one man convicted of the 
offence against the statute. If the legal construction of these laws permits 
the encouragement of the slave-trade, the sooner the Act of Congress is 
amended the better !" 

" We take this opportunity of declaring our most earnest wishes to see an 
entire stop forever put to such ix u-icked, cruel, and unnatural trade." — Part 
of a resolution reported by Washington at the Fairfax County Meeting, July 
18th, 1775. 



30 

family sins with family punishments ; national sins, 
therefore, must meet with national punishments. Exist- 
ing aS'lSlations only in this life, they are punished in this 
life ! Here the political hody to which individuals 
belong is judged. Hereafter the judgment relates to 
men personally."* 

The first great judgment according to our fathers, was 
" the disregard universally displayed to the sanctity of 
the oath, and the disposition to evade the laivs of the coun- 
try, though constitutionally enacted." 

We do not wonder that they were so greatly troubled 
on this account. Historians have remarked, that when 
that sacred respect to an oath, as an inviolable obliga- 
tion, which so long distinguished the Romans, began to 
be diminished, and the loose Epicurean system, w^hich 
discarded the belief of Providence, to be introduced, the 
Roman honor and prosperity from that period began to 
decline. 

The Rebellion of Daniel Shay in 1787, and the Whisky 
Insurrection in 1794, were relatively almost as serious 
matters to our fathers, as "Secession" to us. Even 
Washington himself seems to have been in more trouble 
at the state of things that then prevailed, than at the 
gloomy prospect from Valley Forge ! 

A second judgment was the defeat of Gen. St. Clair 
by the Indians, on the Miami, Nov. 4th, 1791, when six 
hundred and thirty-one were killed, among whom were 
Gen. Butler, and thirty-seven other officers, and two hun- 
dred and sixty-three wounded. 

" To remind us of our sin and of our duty, the moni- 
tors of Providence were again employed. Let the banks 

* "Duty of America in the present crisis." Fast Day Sermon, Jan. 12th, 
1815, by Rev. J. B. Romeyn, D. D., New York. 



31 

of St. Mary, and the adjacent grounds which, now whiten 
with the bones of our youth, tell the tale of wo !"=^ 

A third judgment was the Yellow Fever, in 1798, 
which raged in Philadelphia, New York, and for the first 
time in Boston. 

" Philosophers may speculate and argue as they please. 
They may pretend to assign merely natural causes for 
all these events. But let it be remembered that Gen 
ACTUATES NATURE. Nature without God, is a word either 
destitute of meaning, or replete with blasphemy. "f 

A fourth judgment was the war with France, in 1798, 
when the Nation stood on the -brink of such a precipice 
as it had never done before. War, pestilence, and 
divided counsels, just at the time the nation was rushing 
headlong into infidelity! Was this a mere coincidence? 
The country that had been the cause of judgment, about 
to be the means of its infliction ! If ever there was a sin 
seen in its punishment, it was here. Such men as Pre- 
sident D wight, of Yale College, and many others, did 
not lift up their voice in vain. The people humbled them- 
selves before God, and " by the merciful appointment of 
Divine Providence, the danger of war suddenly disap- 
peared." " He shook his rod over us that we might ob- 
serve it, and laid it aside without chastisina- !" 

A j^'^^ judgment was the war witpi Great Britain, in 
1812, when blood flowed upon the ocean and the lakes 
in torrents ; when the Federal City was taken, and the 
Capitol and President's House burned ; and when in con- 
sequence of the " embargo," and the total stagnation of 
trade and commerce, ■ 

" Thousands of rich sank down among the poor." 



* a 



Divine Judgments." Dr. Mason's Fast Day Sermon, ]793. 
f Mason's ^'■Divine JuJi/menls," Vol. !., p. 48. 



32 

A sixth judgment was the Asiatic Cholera, which, in 
1832, crossed from the Old World to Canada, and ad- 
vanced by way of Albany and New York into the United 
States, where it became for several years the principal 
epidemic disease. Whatever doubt there may have been 
about other judgments, all were constrained to admit 
that this was the Finger of God. 

A seventh period of judgment began in 1835, about the 
time of the Great Fire in New Y^ork. The enormous 
amount of property destroyed by fires on land, and by 
storms at sea ; by the failure of banks, and the reaction 
of excessive speculation all over the country, once more 
rebuked our haste to be rich, and our idolatrous love of 
money, in a way that could not be misunderstood. 

An eighth judgment was the death of President Har- 
* risen in 1840, just one month after his inauguration, 
when for the first time in the history of our country, the 
Presidential chair was rendered vacant by death. 

In this President, the moral and religious portion of 
the Nation thought they had found a man after their own 
heart, and the memorable words with which he concluded 
his Inaugural Address, are written on their memories as 
with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond, on a 
rock forever.* " I deem the present occasion sufficiently 
important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my 
feUow-citizens, a profound reverence for the Christian re- 
ligion, and a thorough conviction that sound morals, re- 
ligious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsi- 
bility, are essentially connected with all true and lasting 

* •' With the Constitutiou of his country in one hand, and the Word of G-od 
in the other, he acknowledged their mutual dependence and entire feality alike 
to patriotism and religion." — -Waterbury's Fast Day Sermon, 1841, " God exalted 
in the discipline of Nations." 



33 

happiness ; and to that Good Being who has blessed us 
by the gifts of civil and religious freedom, who watched 
over and prospered the labors of our fathers, and has 
hitherto preserved to us institutions far exceeding in ex- 
cellence those of any other people, let us unite in fer- 
vently commending every interest of our beloved coun- 
try in all future time." April 4th, 1841, the day of Har- 
rison's death, was a very, very dark day in our history, 
the effect of which we have felt increasingly for evil ever 
since. 

What a dispensation of death was that witnessed by 
Vice-president Tyler, a lesson not more for him, than the 
nation at large ! "Death vacating the Presidential chair 
for his occupancy! Soon after vacating again by the 
death of the statesman w^ho took it, the chair of the 
Vice-presidency he had quitted ! His predecessor in 
the first office of State falling on his right hand, his suc- 
cessor in the second station of dignity falling on his left 
hand. Bereaved in his home of a consort, who, from 
sharing his exaltation, soon passed to the tomb ; be- 
reaved in his Cabinet, first, of Legare, rich in promise, 
talents and acquirements, and smitten down in the ful- 
ness of his strength ; and now of Upshur and Gilmer, 
his personal as well as political friends.'"'' 

Alas ! how seldom are the lessons of calamity truly 
learned! (Amos iv. 6-12.) "Yet have ye not returned 
unto me, saith the Lord." Again we went on more ra- 
pidly than ever, "filling up the cup" of our national 
iniquity, and soon there came, 

A tenth judgment, viz., the death of President Taylor, 

* " The Lessons of Calamity," by Rev. Wm. R. Williams, on occasion of the 
explosion in the U. S. Ship of War, Princeton, by which Messrs. Upshur, Gil- 
mer, and others, lost their lives. Delivered March 10th, 1844. 



84 

July 9th, 1850, a President of all others who had it 
most in his power to deliver us from the evils in which 
we are now involved ; but who, while faithfully "endea- 
voring to do his duty," in such an hour as he thought 
not, to the great affliction of his country, was called away 
in the second year after his inauguration ! 

Great events are rarely understood at the time of their 
occurrence ; they lie like the valleys covered with mist ; 
but when in due process of time the mist rolls away, 
then we begin to understand them. (Hab. ii. 3.) 

" It is well worthy the consideration of the old States, 
whether it is not better to dispense with all Territorial 
organizations, and at once to carve the whole into States 
of convenient size for admission. Thistvas the plan sanc- 
tioned hy Gen. Taylor^ and hut for his death ivoidd have been 
adopted'' Hon. John Sherman's letter, Dec. 22d, 18G0. 

Since that period the judgment trumpets have been 
blowing, and the vials of God's wrath have been pouring 
out upon us as a nation almost continually. Blighted 
harvests, destructive storms at sea, tremendous torna- 
does on land, the inexplicable Financial Panic of 1857, 
droughts unprecedented as to extent and continuance, 
and signs in the heavens, which rarely occur without 
equally remarkable events on earth ; and now, last and 
worst of all, the great Political Panic ; all these things 
show us this day, that when "the judgments of the Lord 
are abroad in the land, the inhabitants thereof (should) 
learn righteousness.'"'' Having lost faith in God, to so 

* So it has been in times past. Tlie Yellow Fever and the French War 
were followed by the "old Revival" of 1800; the war of 1812 by a series of 
revivals beginning in 1815; the Asiatic Cholera by the revivals of 1831 ; the 
"hard times," from 1836 to 1841, by the revivals of 1842; and who does not 
know that 185T, the year of the Great Panic, was succeeded by the year of 
the Great Revival ! Why then may we not look for the "wall (o be built in 
troublous times," in 1861? 



great an extent, no wonder that we have lost faith in 
each other, 'both financiall?/ im& politicall?/ !■'' 
This leads us to consider 



IV. Our National Position. 

According to the Proclamation of the President that 
has assembled us together, it is an hour of " extreme 
peril," a time of ^' actual and impending calamities," a 
time of "panic and distress," not obscurely hinted at as a 
day only to be compared with " the darkest days of the 
Revolution !" The condition of the country " distracted 
and dangerous;" the Union of the States threatened 
with alarming and immediate danger; the friendship and 
good will that formerly prevailed among our people, 
" completely at an end ;" the " wisest counsels wholly 
disregarded ;" the Commonwealth suddenly plunged into 
exigencies unforeseen; the country on the verge of 
" civil war ;" all classes in a state of " confusion and dis- 
may;" "hope itself deserting the minds of men;"f and 

* " There now exists (185G) ail extraordinary prostitutioa of honorand honesty 
in politics; an extraordinary corruption in business; an extraordinary amount 
of extravagance and luxury ; and an extraordinary amount of wickedness of 
every sort." — Neicspajjcr Editorial. 

For the state of things in 1860, especially in New York City, see Judge Pierre- 
pont's letter of resignation to the Governor. Tremendous as are the charges 
there made of moral and official corruption, the worst of all is, that they ivere 
never denied. 

How speedily arc national calamities forgotten ! « 

" And Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway. And when 
the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa out of the high- 
way into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that every one 
that came by him stood still. When he was removed out of the highway, all 

the people went on after Joab, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bicliri." 

2 Sam. XX. 12,13. 

f Even Pandora's box had hope at the bottom ! 



36 

all as the consequence of our " National Sins," our " in- 
gratitude, and guilt," our " false pride of opinion, and 
perseverance in wrong !" How others may have felt on 
reading this Proclamation, we do not know, but for our- 
selves we must confess, that for days together we were 
ashamed to look an American, much more an intelligent 
Foreigner, in the face. If the object of the Proclama- 
tion was to humiliate us, it has certainly had that effect, 
though in a different way perhaps from what was origi- 
nally intended by it. " Not to despair of the Republic,"* 
we had hitherto supposed was one of the very first 
principles of patriotism and common sense ; and to des- 
pair of it before anything had really been done to save it, 
appeared to us an inconsistency equally great in the 
morals of the Proclamation, as had just before been seen 
in the Annual Message, in the way of argument.f 

But willingly to accord to the Proclamation all the 
credit for good intention that it deserves, let us look for 
a moment at our National position, just as it appears on 
the face of it. On the 20th of December, 18G0, South 
Carolina " declared and ordained that the Constitution 
of the United States was repealed, and the Union now 
subsisting between her and other States was dissolved." 

* " Evil prophecies not unfrequently work their own fulfilment. Being con- 
tinually repeated, they at length arrest our attention ; then gradually and im- 
perceptibly gain over our belief, and finally make us indifferent to the result. 
When men have once attained this mental position, we can easily perceive how 
soon the dreadful prophecy may be fulfilled. Turn a deaf car to the dismal 
croaking. Never despair of the Republic ! At least as the best means oi post- 
poning the funeral obsequies of our invaluable institutions, let us be faithful to the 
last." -'' Our Country," by H. Mandeville, D. D., Mobile. 

There are two kinds of treason ; one that springs from design, and one that 
springs from weakness ; and if Rochefoucault is to be believed, " more men 
arc guilty of treason through weakness, than any studied design to betray." 

+ We thought of the old fable of Hercules and the Wagoner, especially the 
moral, "The gods help those who help themselves." 



37 

Secession State Conventions have been appointed as fol- 
lows : Jan. 3d, Florida ; Jan. 7tli, Alabama and Missis- 
sippi; Jan. 8th, Texas; Jan. 9th, Georgia; Jan. 2od, 
Louisiana ; and also during the same month, in reference 
to the same object, special sessions of the Legislatures 
of Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. Treason in the 
Cabinet, open and unblushing ; the National Treasury al- 
most bankrupt; the National arms betrayed into the hands 
of the enemies of the Government and the Constitution ; 
the overt act of treason committed by the unworthy succes- 
sors of Gadsden and the Rutledges; the very fort in which 
Sergeant Jasper immortalized his name in connection 
with the American Flag, now disgraced by a garrison of 
rebels, who substitute the Palmetto for the Stars and 
Stripes !* 

The Federal Metropolis itself threatened,-]- and the 

* "The memories of the past are there, 

Fast clinging to each silken fold ; 

The pious hope, the vow, the prayer, 

From hearts and lips now hushed and cold. 

"Our sires' strong faith, their war-worn years. 
Their dying groans, their conquering crj'. 
Their orphans' wail, their widows' tears, 
Great Washington there wrote on high. 

" His sacred shade in wild alarm, 

Now calls that traitor hand to stop, 
As once God's angel stayed the arm 
Of Abram on the mountain-top. 

" And vale to vale, and crag to crag. 
The deep-toned curse shall echo far. 
On him who rends the Union flag, 
Or from its azure strikes a star." 
Detroit Tribune. D. B. D. 

f A few months before the decease of the late Col. Benton, he said to a 
young political friend then on a visit to Washington, " Young man, you have 
seen the Hall of Patents, the Post Office, the Capitol ; for whom have they 



38 

militia of the District of Columbia, and of different 
States, ready to put themselves at once under the com- 
mand of the National Authorities, and march for the 
preservation of their common country; "the time for 
crimination and recrimination past;" the time for 
ACTION fully come, and the great body of the People once 
MORE IN Council ; such a day as this, it may safely be 
affirmed, has never been seen in the history of our coun- 
try, since the establishment of the Constitution ! Deci- 
sion of purpose, promptness of action, the utmost energy 
of unflinching determination on the part of our rulers, 
that which under God alone can save us ; well may we 
this day pray with our Fathers of old, " To avert from us 
the evils of civil war, and to inspire us with firmness in 
support of our rights !" 

Our Government ; our civil, social and commercial in- 
terests ; our best enjoyments in private life ; everything 
that constitutes the common welfare ; yea, our National 
existence itself, at stake ; what then are our 

National Duties? 

I. As Christians, to understand the correct and Chris- 
tian theory of government in general ; 

That God has established it ; 

That obedience is to be yielded as a matter of con- 
science ; 

been built at such enormous expense?" " For the people of the United States, 
I suppose." " fZntVet/ States ! No, Sir, no I They are for the Southern Con- 
federacy, which has been plotting for the last five and twenty years, and 
which I greatly fear the Nation will not wake up to discover until it is too 
LATE." Remembering the words of the dying Benton, we were not surprised 
to hear Senator Iverson declare in place, " I see no reason why Washington 
City shall not be continued the Capitol of a Southern Confederacy. The build- 
ings are ready to our hand!" — Speech of Dec. 11. Nor to hear Mr. Rhett affirm, 
that " Secession had been in contemplation for thirty years !" See also ihe 
Letter of Gen. JacksoJi to the Rev. Mr. Craxcford. 



39 

That until a people are ready to make a new Consti- 
tution, and establish another form of Government, they 
are bound to maintain that which they have. 

R-om. xiii. 1-7.* 

II. As Christian citizens, to understand the true 
nature of our own Government. 

1. That the Declaration of Independence, and the 
Constitution of the United States, are parts of one con- 
sistent whole, founded upon one and the same theory of 
Government, as a theory working itself into the mind 
of man for many ages, but which had never before been 
adopted by a great nation in practice, viz. : 

The natural equality and inalienable rights of man ; 
and that 

The people are the only legitimate source of power. 
See Adams Jubilee of the Constitution, p. 41. 

2. That this Constitution is not " a compact," but a 
fundamental law; that it creates direct relations between 
it and individuals; that it lays its hand on individual 
conscience and individual duty; that it was originally 
received as a whole, and for the whole country; and 
that what the people have done, only the people can 
undo ! Speech of Daniel Webster, U. S. Senate, Feb. 16, 
1833. 

III. A third duty is to understand the true nature of 
Rebellion. 

To justify rebellion, a Government must be so bad as 
to fail of its just end ; its injustice so great that it would 
be preferable to endure civil war ; there must be no pros- 

* On this passage, thousands of sermons were preached on the " Supremacy 
of the Laws,' during the prevalence of "Mob Law" in 1838, 1844, and es- 
pecially in 1850. We suggest that they might now be repeated to great ad- 
vantage with a new application. 



40 

pect that grievances can be redressed peaceably ; there 
must be a good hope of the firm establishment of a better 
Government; there must be some reasonable expecta- 
tion of eventual success;* otherwise, the imperative 
duty of " the Powers that be," in reference to such rebel- 
lion, is TO PUT IT DOWN. 

IV. A fourth duty is to hate Treason. 

" Treason against the State, on the part of its highest 
officers, is the darkest of human offences. Fidelity to 
the Constitution is due from every citizen. The mur- 
derer, even when his victim is eminent for genius and 
virtue, destroys what time will repair, and deep as is his 
guilt, society suffers but transiently from the transgres- 
sion. But he who conspires against the liberties of a 
Nation, conspires to subvert the most precious bequest of 
past ages, the dearest hope of future time; he would de- 
stroy genius in its birth, and enterprise in its sources, 
and sacrifice the prolific causes of intelligence and virtue, 
to his avarice or his vanity, his caprices or his ambition; 
would rob the Nation of its Nationality ; the people of 
the prerogatives of man ! There can be no fouler deed!" 
— Bancroft, Vol. ii. p. 15. 

V. Let us make up our minds, as to what is our duty 
'personally in reference to our present National position. 

Of course in this matter, I can only speak for myself 
as an individual,*}- but if the simple alternative is between 
the abrogation of the grandest National Constitution un- 

* "Religious duty of Obedience to Law" by I. S. Spencer, D. D., Brooklyn, 
1850. 

t A young layman thus spoke at Old Pine Street a few evenings since. 
" Six young men have died in this congregation in 18G0; in all probability 
there will be a much greater number in 1861. If our countiy calls for our ser- 
vicdis we must be ready to give them." Though the pastor was present, Nee 
dicit aliter ! The old church was true to the Union in 1776, why should it not 
be equally true in 1861 ? 



# 41 

inspired, the world has ever seen, and Civil War — ter- 
rible as such a war is — " when it begins, no one knowing 
where it will end ;"'•' yet between these two opinions, I 
cannot halt for an instant. Knowing where I stand, and 
on what occasion, in full view of my responsibility to 
God and man for such a declaration, rather than that the 
sentiments recently uttered in a Presbyterian pulpit of 
New Orleansf should become the moral and religious sen- 
timents of this country, and lead to their legitimate results 
in making slavery National instead of local,% and against 

* Bishop Burnet. 

f " To secure and to perpetuate the institution of domestic slavery as noto exist- 
ing ;" " the duty we owe to ourselves, to our slaves^ to the world, and to Almighty 
God" preached iiva Presbyterian pulpit, under the motto : "A faithful witness 
will not lie ;" " a true witness delivereth souls." Words are wanting to ex- 
press our horror and astonishment at such a sentiment at high noon in the 
19th Century ! 

We thought of the unanimous action of the Presbyterian Fathers in 1818. 
" It is manifestly the duty of all Christians, who enjoy the light of the present 
day, when the inconsistency of slavery, both with the dictates of humanity and 
religion, has been demonstrated, and is generally seen and acknowledged, to use 
honest, earnest, unwearied endeavors to correct the errors of former times, 
and as speedily as possible to efface this blot on our holy religion, and to obtain the 
complete abolition of slavery throughout Christendom., and throughout the world." 

We thought of what Hannah More said in 1788 ; " Slavery is vindicated in 
print, and defended in the House of Peers ! Poor human reason ! When wilt 
thou come to years of discretion ?" 

Most of all did we think of the words of a certain writer in Charleston, S. C. 
" Such is the fatal influence of slavery on the human mind, that it almost wholly 
effaces from it even the boasted characteristic of rationality!" 

A faint echo of this sermon of Dr. Palmer's, has recently been heard in 
Brooklyn, L. I. American slavery a doctrine of the Bible I " The Union to be 
sacrificed on the altar of peace !" Credat Judaeus, Raphell! 

"Another error consists in regarding the Africans as an inferior race, fit 
only for slaves. Infidelity, as you are aware, has been active at the South in 
inducing the belief that the negro belongs to an inferior, if not a distinct race. 
This doctrine is the only foundation of perpetual slavery. This defence of 
slavery is as old as Aristotle. ' The barbarians are of a different race from us, 
and were born to be slaves to the Greeks.'" — Dr. Van Renssalaer's Letter to Dr. 
Armstrong, 1858. 

X See an admirable article in Bib. Repertory, Jan. 1861, entitled, " The 



42 

the Christian sentiment of the world/-' re-opening the 
Slave-trade, and all "the horrors of the middle passage," — 
I say it calmly, I repeat it deliberately, I am as ready 
to-morrow to enlist in the Army of the " Second Found- 
ers OF THE Republic," as ever the honored ancestor whose 
name I bear, was to enlist in the Army of the Revolu- 
tion If " When President Langdon of Harvard Univer- 
sity put himself at the head of Col. Prescott's column on 
Cambridge Common, on the eve of the 17th of June, 

siate of the Country^^ by Dr Hodge, of which we are sorry to say, that the 
words that follow in italics have since, with other portions, been suppressed. 

" Our outward union is the expression of inward unity. To this we owe 
our dignity and our power among the nations of the earth. Had we been as 
the dissociated communities of Italy, we had been insignificant. It is because 
we are one ; that we are great, prosperous, and powerful. All this, until re- 
cently, was the common sentiment of the country ; and the man who should advo- 
cate a dissolution of the Union, would have been associated in the estimation of his 
countrymen, with Benedict Arnold. And such, we doubt not, ivill be the position 
assigned by the judgment of posterity to the authors of disunion, should that calamity 
befall us." For further extracts, see Appendix C. 

* In ].843, Senator Buchanan, from Pennsylvania, remarked: " All Chris- 
tendom is leagued against the South upon the question of Domestic Slavery. 
They have no other allies to sustain their Constitutional rights except the De- 
mocracy OP THE North !" In view of such a declaration, the history of this 
party, and of Mr. Buchanan's Administration for the last four years, is very 
significant. 

f Loving the Society of Friends as we do, increasingly, for their steady and 
consistent testimony, as seen in the writings of Anthony Benezet, John Wool- 
man, and others, against intemperance, the oppression of the Indians and the 
Africans, and in so many respects against the evils of war: yet on the subject 
of non-resistance we cannot agree with them, not finding this doctrine taught 
either in the Old Testament or the New. " What are human governments to 
us?" says one of these good brethren, reproving us for this sermon. "We 
have nothing to do with them. What rights have we to defend? We have no 
rights. We have laid all human rights upon the altar," &c. Such language as 
this, we candidly confess, we do not understand. If ten wicked men should 
attack one hundred non-resistant Christian men, with a view to destroy them, 
it seems to us that there would be at least as much folly on the part of the one 
hundred in allowing themselves to be slaughtered, as of wickedness in the ten 
in slaughtering them. However, as this whole controversy with the Friends 
was gone through by Gilbert Tennent and others, we will say no more. 



43 

1775, and offered up a devout prayer beneath the stars 
for the success of the expedition then starting for the 
neighboring heights of Charlestown, he was no Judas 
leading a band with swords and lanterns against the 
Christ of God."''' In view of all the results of Bunker 
Hill, it is as clear to me as the noon-day sun, that he would 

HAVE BEEN A JuDAS HAD HE DONE OTHERWISE ! That OUr 

brethren at the South, whom we still call brethren, and 
towards whom we still feel as such, notwithstanding such 
speeches as those of Senators Iverson and Wigfall,*|- may 
know precisely what they have to expect, if they con- 
tinue to say, "A Confederacy," when God in his Provi- 
dence does not seem to call for one, I repeat the sentiment 
just uttered ; that if putting aside all our efforts at con- 
ciliation, they throw down the gauntlet, and appeal to the 
God of Battles, they may rest assured beyond all doubt 
or cavil, that it will be taken up ! '' To secure a peace- 
able possession of all important national rights, for such 
a purpose, war is lawful ; and they who hazard their 
lives in it, are worthy of the highest honor !"t 

Say ye not then, on any pf^etence, "A Confederacy" to 
those who are now endeavoring to overthrow our Na- 
tional Confederacy, and establish one of their own ! 
" Neither fear ye their fear, nor he afraid." Let not a 
foolish, sinful fear, disturb our spirits, conquer our faith, 
or restrain our prayers ! Sure of a " good God," a good 
cause, and a good issue at last, " Sanctify the Lord of 

* Rev. Wm. Adams, D. D., New York, Thanksgiving Sermon, 1850. 

f Fanaticism begets fanaticism. " If John Brown of Ossawatomie " " fired 
off his gun to show what time of day it was," it is high time for us to look at 
the National sun-dial. Brown was but the legitimate and inevitable result of 
Slavery Propagandism. An army of such men, Governor Wise himself being 
Judge, would make an army more terrible than Cromwell's " Ironsides." 

% ''Ab]}. Seeker's IX. Sermons on occasion of the Rebellion,^' p. 201, ed. 1Y58. 



44 

Hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be 
your dread, and He shall be for a Sanctuary !"* 

As old John Adams, "the pilot that weathered the 
storm" in 1798, said : "The furnace of affliction produces 
refinement in the State as in individuals." In the 
words of our President elect, whom we trust God has 
raised up for a similar crisis in 1861, " Only stand firm, 
and we will not fail !" Remembering that the year 1761 
was the beginning of American Liberty, we are not will- 
ing that 1861 shall see it end ! 

* The saddest line to us in Horace's Ode on the Ship of State, 
Nudum remigio latus, 
Et malus celeri saucius Africa, 
is the following : 

Non Di, quos iterum pressa voces nialo. 



APPENDIX. 



A. 

"The convention for forming a Constitution, for the State of 
Pennsylvania, met at Philadelphia, on Monday, 15th July, 
1776, and elected Dr. Benjamin Franklin, President. By sol- 
emn resolution they directed Divine service to be performed 
before them, by the Rev. Wm. White, since Bishop of Penn- 
sylvania, and oifering to Almighty God, their praises and 
thanksgiving for the manifold mercies, and the peculiar inter- 
position of his special providence, in behalf of the injured and 
oppressed United States, they prayed for His Divine grace and 
assistance in the important and arduous task committed to 
them." — Gordon s History of Pennsylvania, p. 539. 

The following document was evidently prepared to assist the 
deliberations of the convention; it has never before been pub- 
lished, and only within a few months narrowly escaped destruc- 
tion. Whilst "rummaging" as Mr. Jefferson says, among a 
mass of old papers, we were fortunate enough to discover and 
save this well considered testimony of one of the Chaplains of 
the Old Continental Congress. 

Who should be our Rulers ? 

Query. — May a community of professing christians, of right 
require any profession of the christian faith of those appointed 
to bear rule among them, previous to their admission to office, or 
make a profession of Christianity, a suspending term of their 
being admitted to any of the principal offices in the state ? 

Though every sect of christians are through human weak- 
ness, liable to mistake, and ought therefore to exercise mutual 
charity and forbearance towards each other; neither may any 
person have any injury done him, in his name, person or estate, 
or be subjected to any pains or penalties for his religious senti- 
ments, whilst in no way tending to the hurt of the common- 
wealth ; yet, that they may, and ought to require a profession 
of Christianity in general, such as a belief of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, to be of Divine authority, and salvation by Jesus Christ, 
of every of their principal officers of state, previous to their 



46 

admission appears — if not absolutely incumbent — yet by far 
the most probable and eligible sentiment, from the following 
considerations : 

1. Officers in the State are to be considered as the servants 
of the public, employed by the Body, to perform certain servi- 
ces for them, and for which service, they receive that reward 
or hire, which the community agree to give; though officers 
are the servants of the State, it is yet the highest honor the 
State can confer on any of its members, to repose confidence 
in them, to transact for them the public concerns. 

2. No man, or set of men, has any natural right to any 
office in the State, more than he has a natural right to oblige 
or demand his neighbor to hire him to perform any service he 
has to do, and consequently none of his natural rights are in- 
fringed — if the community think proper not to employ him, 
more than the farmer infringes on the natural rights of the 
laborer, when he chooses to employ another rather than him. 

3. Every community has an undoubted right to choose whom 
they Avill employ, to perform any service for them, equally as 
the farmer has, to choose whom he will employ to perform any 
labor for him. And as they have a right to choose as they 
please, whom they will employ — So, 

4. They have for the same reason, an equal right to make 
such regulations as they see proper, respecting the persons they 
will agree to employ in their service, so that these regulations 
infringe on no man's natural right, nor inflict any penalty on 
those they may not think proper to employ. 

5. For a society of professing Christians, to agree to employ 
none in any of their principal offices of service in the State, 
but such as profess Christianity, appears to be no more than a 
proper mark of respect paid to themselves, as a body, and to 
the christian religion they profess, and cannot therefore, in 
that point of view be condemned. 

Whereas, on the other hand, to act a contrary part, must 
appear in the eyes of the far greater part of the community, 
treating Christianity with a degree of neglect, and has a direct 
tendency to sink it lower in the public esteem, and induce 
many through the influence, a connection of ideas has on 
the mind of man, to hold it on a par with Infidelity, in other 
respects as well, also, as in that wherein they would thus see 
it placed by the Constitution of their government. 

6. Good morals are essentially necessary to the health and 
prosperity of the State. 

Whatever measure therefore, appears best adapted to pre- 
serve and promote the morals of the state ought to be embraced. 
Christianity is much better calculated to preserve and pro- 



47 

mote good morals than infidelity; as much therefore, as Christi- 
anity is better calculated for this great essential purpose, so 
much more advisable and prudent it is, to have christian magis- 
trates and officers, rather than infidels, especially when we 
consider, 

7. The experience of all ages has confirmed the observa- 
tion, that the principles and practice of superiors, and especi- 
ally of rulers, have great influence on those of inferior rank ; 
as in the history of the Jews ; the complexion of the people 
at large, as either moral or profane, may generally be known 
by adverting to the character of the rulers that were over them, 
and it is ever to be expected, that every man will endeavour 
according to his opportunities for that purpose, to promote the 
sentiments he himself has embraced, and induce others to join 
him in practice. 

To admit therefore, an Infidel to authority and rule in the 
State, as it gives weight and influence to his sentiment and ex- 
ample, so it has in the same proportion a direct tendency, 
to promote infidelity and sap the foundation of good morals in 
the state, and thereby do it a material and essential injury; 
nor can the efi"ect be doubted, when we consider how naturally 
prone mankind are to be, much more easily and powerfully in- 
fluenced by evil sentiments and examples than good ones. 

This appears the language of reason, and though I am well 
aware how readily many are disposed to a Deistical contempt 
of that Sacred Book, to sneer at an appeal to the Holy Scrip- 
tures, yet, as I believe them to be from God, and designed to 
make us wise for our own true good here, as well as eternal 
happiness hereafter, I am not ashamed to apply to them in 
the present case, and assert it most consonant to the declared 
will and command of the Eternal God ; that a State com^posed 
of professing christians, should place over them, rulers and 
officers professing Christianity. And here it is necessary to 
observe that the Scriptures were not designed for any one par- 
ticular nation of people, but as a rule of direction, for the 
professing people of God, in all parts and ages of the world. 
And although in the directions given to the Jews, there were 
some things of a particular nature and particularly designed 
for that people, exclusive of all other nations under heaven 
in every age, yet, whatever general directions were given to 
them, founded in and consonant to the reason of things, these 
were as much designed for us as for them, and are equally ob- 
ligatory on us. Who will venture to say that the great charter 
of blessings confirmed to that people, Deut. 28: and sanctioned 
by heavy penalties ; those denounced in case of persisted in 
Rebellion against the the authority of God, was not equally 



48 

designed to inform us as them, of the way wherein to secure 
national prosperity and avoid national calamity and distress? 
and has not the experience of all ages, agreeable hereto, con- 
firmed the Sacred Remark — Prov. xiv. 34, that " Righteousness 
exalteth a nation," &c. ? This then, being granted, which 
cannot with reason be denied, it will follow that the directions 
given to that people to regulate their conduct, in choosing 
their chief magistrate, and established by God himself as a 
part of their Constitution, ought at least to have some respect 
paid to it by christians, in choosing those who are to bear rule 
among them ; it is certainly, more probable we shall act agree- 
ble to the mind of God in paying a regard to it, as far as our 
circumstances coincide with those of the people to whom it was 
given, than by treating it with absolute neglect. These direc- 
tions are therefore, transmitted down to us, iJeut. xvii. 18. Let 
any one read the passage and then say whether an Infidel Ma- 
gistrate can by any means be supposed to answer the character; 
or whether its most plain and natural meaning, if it has any 
respect or meaning to us at all, is not that as professing chris- 
tians we ought to choose officers professing Christianity, for, 

1st. He is to be of their Religion, that is a Jew, incorpora- 
ted in that body and professing the Jewish Religion, no matter 
of what tribe or order, save only that none of the tribe of 
Levi, are to be chosen. This is all the exception made, and it is 
a good exception, still, nor will any of the clerical order desire 
it, unless they have forgotten the apostolic injunction, "Give 
thyself wholly to these things," 1 Tim. iv. 15. 

2d, He is to study the word of God, for though the expres- 
sion, {Deut. xvii. 18,) has a special reference to the judicial law 
of that people, it cannot with propriety be restricted to that. 
It was the Avhole law which was with the priests and Levites, 
but this was the whole of the Divine Revelation, is still of ex- 
cellent use to form even the highest officers of the State, for a 
faithful discharge of their trust to the commonwealth as well as 
to form the individual for usefulness here and glory hereafter. 

od. He was to learn to fear the Lord — but how is this most 
likely to be obtained to have rulers that are taught to fear 
God ? Is it by choosing Infidels or by choosing Christians ? 

4th. He was to set an example to the people — and this ex- 
ample was certainly not for nothing, but that it might have 
influence ; it was therefore as much the people's duty to ob- 
serve and follow the example of their rulers, as it was theirs to 
set it. But what example shall we expect from Infidels ? Are 
they likely to walk in the law of the Lord? &c., or ought Ave 
to choose examples of infidelity to set before us and our chil- 
dren to copy after? 



49 

A second direction from the sacred pages, 2 Samuel xxiii. 
3. " He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the 
fear of G-od" This is an express command of God, and 
delivered in terms so general, as render it impossible to 
be restricted to the Jews, but equally designed for us as any 
other portion of Sacred Writ. And will any say that an 
Infidel answers to this character, or is likely to rule in the fear 
of God ? The 101st Psalm is generally understood as descrip- 
tive of those the Psalmist, by divine direction, was determined 
to employ in the service of the State ; and such are character- 
ized, v. 6, by walking in the perfect way. But is it possible to 
suppose infidelity can be that " perfect way ?" Or if the Psalm 
should be understood of domestic servants, Avill not the aro-u- 
ment hold much stronger with respect to those who are to serve 
the State ? 

In Isaiah xlix. 23, it is promised among the singular bless- 
ings that shall attend Christian States in the day of their 
greatest prosperity, that their rulers shall be "nursing fathers " 
&c., to the Church of Christ. But are Infidels likely to be 
these nursing fathers? Or when we know God generally 
accomplishes ends in the way of means adapted to these ends, 
shall we use the means that are most directly opposed to it in 
order to obtain the so valuable and desirable ends ? ' 

Under the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is express in 
this matter, by the Apostle Paul,.l Cor. vi. 1— T, which cannot 
be understood as forbidding Christians to go to law at all, for 
then would the Holy Spirit manifestly contradict himself,' and 
condemn the use of what he elsewhere terms an "ordinance of 
God.'' _ Neither is it to be restricted merely to the condemning 
of a litigious disposition, for there would then be no need of 
saying anything about judges, whether Heathen or Christian, 
as a litigious temper has nothing to do with the judge, but is 
still the same, whatever the magistrate be. But the charcre 
against them is in express terms, not for going to law, but for 
going to law before infidel magistrates and judges, and not be- 
fore Christians, as v. 1, and then even when there were no 
Christian officers in the State ; for which reason he urges them 
to choose judges among themselves, by mutual consent, and 
submit to them the decision of their debates, rather than apply 
to infidels for justice; nay, even to sustain loss, and bear the 
injury which otherwise they had no right to bear, rather than 
appear before a heathen or infidel bar, which must appear to 
any candid inquirer the very design of the apostle's address ; 
for to understand it, as some pretend to do, as an injunction to 
settle matters by arbitration, and not to go to law, is begi-ino- 



50 

the question, and deriving their argument from the corrupt ad- 
ministration and unrighteous delay of justice, which is the only 
reason that gives arbitration the preference, inasmuch as were 
proper judges appointed, and they faithfully to attend to and 
discharge their duty, there could be no more proper, just, or 
expeditious method devised of deciding debates. And, besides, 
there is not a single syllable in the text about a corrupt ad- 
ministration or unjust delay of justice, but the matter is en- 
tirely and precisely about the judges, and that only. 

Upon the whole, both reason and revelation, if I am not 
greatly mistaken, will be found with united suffrage to declare 
that if it is not an absolutely incumbent duty, it is at least highly 
becoming, and right, and fit that a community of professing 
Christians should admit none but such as profess Christianity 
to principal places of trust, as Rulers in the State, and this, I 
am well persuaded, will be found to be the sentiment of a very 
great majority of the sober thinking part of all denominations 
in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, nor can any with the 
least shadow of justice allege that this tends to establish, or 
give a prerogative to any one sect of Christians above another, 
inasmuch as all that is contended for is only in addition to the 
belief of one Eternal God, the Creator and Governor of the 
world, proposing also a belief in Jesus Christ the Saviour, 
and that the holy Scriptures, as contained in the Old and New 
Testaments, are of divine authority, and given as a rule of faith 
and manners, leaving to every man and to every sect and de- 
nomination to understand the Scriptures, and explain and re- 
ceive the doctrines contained therein, in the best manner they 
can for themselves, according to the measure of light where- 
with they are indued, without any human exposition or inter- 
pretation of others being imposed upon them ; but the rights of 
conscience fully and equally secured to all of every denomination. 

Arguments, I know, and some of them at first view plausible, 
are oflered on the other side of the question. 

1st. It is said the Church and State ought to be kept entirely 
separate, and no connection admitted between things civil and 
religious, as they have no connection in nature, and many mis- 
chiefs have flowed from blending them together. If this be so, 
then great care must be taken to establish nothing of morality, 
for this is one grand essential constituent of religion, which 
consists in loving God supremely and our neighbors as our- 
selves ; doing to all men as we would wish them in like circum- 
stances to do to us. If any say the good of society requires 
this, I answer this is only giving up the position, and saying 
that though civil and religious things are to be kept entirely 
apart, they are yet in many things so inseparably connected 



51 

that it is impossible to separate them one from the other. If 
this be so, we can then have no Sabbath established in any 
State, however composed entirely of professing Christians, un- 
less it be somewhat of a political Sabbath, and entirely dis- 
similar to the word of God, for as the observation of a Sabbath 
is a part, and that a very material and foundation part of true 
Religion — for any State, therefore, to establish the observation 
of a Sabbath, is so far to blend Religion with their civil con- 
stitution ; which, according to the above position, ought by no 
means to be done, but the two be kept entirely separate from 
each other.* Nay, further, as the observation of a Sabbath is 
a part of revealed religion, and depends entirely on the divine 
authority of that revelation which enjoins it, we cannot estab- 
lish the observation of a Sabbath without previously admitting, 
and e(jually establishing the divine authority of that revelation 
on which the Sabbath depends. We must, therefore, inevitably 
either admit and establish in our civil constitution the divine 
authority of the Scriptures, or we must utterly reject the Sab- 
bath from amongst us, save as any one may choose of his own 
accord to observe the day. There is no alternative in the case. 
Admit, then, the Sabbath rejected, as on the above position it 
absolutely must be, and no one obliged to observe it, I leave 
it to any man who has observed how difficult it is with all the 
care that can be taken to have a Sabbath observed, I leave it 
to him to judge what our situation in a few years will be. 
Whether we shall be likely to have a Sabbath among us at all, 
but in this respect be purely heathen, and the Sabbath entirely 
gone, though the wisest and best of men in every age have 
esteemed the observation of the Sabbath of essential use to 
promote not only piety towards God, but morality toward men, 
and the great good of society ; and God himself laid it down 
as a first grand foundation principle in the Jewish constitution, 
instantly after bringing them forth out of Egypt. The truth 
of the case is, it is impossible to run a line of distinction be- 
tween things civil and religious, so as to separate- the one from 
the other, in any civihzed State. They are in many respects 
what God and nature have joined together, and man may not 
put asunder. The only culpable connection is when, instead 
of establishing purely the inspired standard, human creeds and 
compositions are established, and an unequal and equally un- 
just prerogative or preference is given to any one sect or de- 
nomination over or beyond others, or when any pains or penal- 
ties are inflicted for religious sentiments, in no wise interfering 
with the common good and safety of the State. 

* See " Sunday Laws ; or, Shall the Sabbath be protected?" An Essay published 
by the Presbyterian Board, Philadelphia. 



52 

2d. It is said, to exclude an Infidel from being admitted to 
stand candidate for any office in the State, is infringing his 
natural right, and impliedly inflicting a penalty on him for his 
conscience sake, and in a matter purely respecting religion, 
and which ought to have nothing to do with things of a civil 
nature. 

To which I reply — If no man has a natural right to any . 
office in the State, there is no natural right infringed in not 
electing him to that office. If it be said, though he has not a 
natural right to the office, he has a natural right to be admitted 
to stand a candidate for it, it is replied, the collective body 
have certainly as good a natural right to determine on the 
qualifications of those they will agree to choose into that office ; 
and if there be any clashing of natural rights, or if a natural 
right on the one side stands opposed to a natural right on the 
other. Reason says, that of the individual ought to give way to 
that of the collective body. Nor is his being excluded by the 
want of a qualification judged proper by the community, to be 
esteemed a penalty inflicted, Avhilst no injury is done him in 
name, person or estate, but he enjoys in peace and safety all 
his civil and religious rights and liberties, save only that the 
community have not thought proper to appoint him a ruler 
over them. 

3dly. It is said. It may be depriving the community of the 
service of a very capable, useful and worthy member, to which 
I answer, in the language of the Apostle to the Corinthians — 
Can it be supposed there are not wise men to be found among a 
whole State of professing Christians — no, not so many as to afi'ord 
a sufficient number to fill the most important offices of the State? 
If it be so, the Christian religion must have greatly dwindled 
away in that State, and the time come near at hand when it 
will be proper to give it up to the direction of Infidels. 

4thly. It is said — It would be depriving the people of a free 
choice. If the people have before laid down and agreed upon 
such a regulation, they are deprived of nothing but departing 
from a rule which they themselves have considered as salutary, 
and necessary to be observed. 

5th. It is alleged — That the prudence of the people would 
so direct them that there could be no danger of a majority be- 
ing chosen of such as disbelieve in Christianity, and that two 
or three, or any small number, could do no harm. 

It is a remark made by the wise man, that one sinner de- 
stroyeth much good, and it might hold in this case as well as 
in others. And if it would be prudent in the people to guard 
against a majority of their representatives or chief officers be- 
ing Infidels, one would think it not a very imprudent step to 



53 

establish a rule that, without doing injury to any man, woukl 
ciFectually prevent it. 

It is scarce worth mentioning a certain commonplace objec- 
tion, which, though really an insult on the meanest understand- 
ing to offer, is yet made against requiring a subscription of a 
profession, as calculated only to make men act the hypocrite, 
by declaring what they do not believe, inasmuch as the same 
objection equally militates against requiring any profession, or 
declaration of anything, or enjoining an oath of fidelity on ad- 
mission into any office : for a man may certainly as easily act 
the hypocrite in professing allegiance to the United States of 
America, declaring against the right of the King of Britain to 
govern these States, or solemnly swearing that he will dis- 
charge the trust of office committed to him, as in making a pro- 
fession of believing the Scriptures ; that if for this reason the 
latter should be rejected, all ought by right to be renounced 
together. 

I shall close my remarks on this subject at present with 
observing, old customs and institutions with which we have long 
been acquainted are like old friends, whom we shall not hastily 
cast off, without weighty reasons urging thereto. We have 
tried now for near a century an institution, the same in sub- 
stance Avith that above pleaded for, formed by the celebrated 
founder of this State. No inconvenience has ever arisen from 
it. It has obtained universal esteem, is interwoven into our 
earliest thought of the matter, and grown up with our judg- 
ment ; under this the people will feel themselves contented and 
happy ; whether the case will be the same with the proposed 
alteration is greatly to be questioned, or rather the negative is 
certain, and the experiment, if made, will but too probably in 
its consequences verify in the State of Pennsylvania the Pro- 
phet Hosea's remark, chap. viii. 3 and 4 — " Israel hath cast off 
the thing which is good, they have set up rulers but not by 
Me." ' GEORGE DUFFIELD. 

The above piece was written at the time of forming the Con- 
stitution of the State of Pennsylvania, and though I wish to 
exercise all the charity I can for all mankind, and abhor the 
idea of subjecting any person to any, even the least injury on 
account of his religious sentiments or tenets in things pertain- 
ing to another world, so that he behave himself as a good citi- 
zen, yet, on a calm review of the case, at this distance of time, 
I cannot but think the arguments here adduced have weight, 
and that, on the whole, it is the safest line of conduct. 

G. D 

Philadelphia, Sept. 5, 1787. 



54 

B. 

Hanover^ January 18, 1773. 

Dear Sir : — I take tliis opportunity to acknowledge the re- 
ceipt of Anthony Benezet's book against the slave-trade : I 
thank you for it. It is not a little surprising, that the profes- 
sors of Christianity, whose chiei excellence consists in soften- 
ing the human heart, in cherishing and improving its finer feel- 
ings, should encourage a practice so totally repugnant to the 
first impressions of right and wrong. What adds to the wonder 
is, that this abominable practice has been introduced in the 
most enlightened ages. Times, that seem to have pretensions 
to boast of high improvements in the arts and sciences, and 
refined morality, have brought into general use, and guarded 
by many laws, a species'of violence and tyranny, which our more 
rude and barbarous, but more honest ancestors detested. Is it 
not amazing, that at a time, when the rights of humanity are 
defined and understood with precision, in a country, above all 
others, fond of liberty ; that in such an age, and in such a 
country, we find men professing a religion the most humane, 
mild, gentle and generous, adopting a principle as repugnant to 
humanity, as it is inconsistent with the Bible, and destructive 
to liberty ? every thinking honest man rejects it in speculation. 
How few in practice from conscientious motives ? 

"Would any one believe that I am master of slaves, of my 
own purchase ! I am drawn along by the general inconvenience 
of living here without them. I will not, I cannot justify it. 
However culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to 
virtue, as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, 
and lament my want of conformity to them. 

/ believe a time will come when an opportunity will he offered 
to abolish this lamentable evil. Everything we can do, is to im- 
prove it, if it happens in our day ; if not, let us transmit to 
our descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for their un- 
happy lot, and an abhorrence for slavery. If we cannot reduce 
this wished for reformation to practice, let us treat the unhappy 
victims with lenity. It is the furthest advance we can make 
towards justice. It is a debt we owe to the purity of our re- 
ligion,, to show that it is at variance with that law, which war- 
rants slavery. 

I know not where to stop. I could saj many things on the 
subject ; a serious view of which, gives a gloomy perspective to 
future times! * * Patrick Henry. 



55 

C. 

The only question of principle, so far as relates to slavery, 
which distinguishes the mass of the people at the North from 
the extreme Southern party, is, whether slavery is a municipal 
or natural institution ; whether a man's right to hold a slave 
as property rests on statute law, or upon the common law. If 
the latter, then a man has a right to carry his slaves into any 
state or territory into which he may lawfully carry his ox or 
his horse. He may bring them by hundreds and thousands 
into any state in the Union, and settle with them there. If 
the former, he can carry them no where beyond the legitimate 
authority of the law by which slavery exists. Which of these 
views is correct, this is not the place to discuss. All that we 
Avish to say on the point is, that this is the sum of the differ- 
ence in principle between the North and the extreme South ; 
and that, as a historical fact, the doctrine that slavery is a 
municipal institution, that no man has the same right to hold 
his slave in bondage in France and England, that he has there 
to keep possession of his books or clothes, was the doctrine of 
all parties in this country until within the last twenty or thirty 
years. If, therefore, holding this opinion is a just ground for 
separating from the North, it was a just ground for refusing 
to submit to the administration of Washington, Jefferson, 
Madison, Monroe, and every other President, unless our pre- 
sent chief magistrate be an exception. * * * 

The leaders of the secession movement regard the Union as 
a mere partnership ; a treaty between sovereign states, which 
may be dissolved by any one of the parties, by giving due no- 
tice. That this is a false view of the case is evident : 

1. From the very idea of a nation. It is a body politic, in- 
dependent of all others, and indissolubly one. That is, indis- 
soluble at the mere option of its constituent parts. * * * 
No constituent member of a nation can ever have the legal 
right to secede or rebel. It may have a moral right, in case 
of absolute necessity. But having no legal right, it exercises 
its moral right of rebellion, subject to the legal and moral 
right of the government against which it rebels, to resist or to 
concede, as it may see fit. 

2. A second argument against the right of secession is found 
in the very words and avowed design of the compact. The 
contracting parties stipulate that the Union shall be " per- 
petual." A perpetual lease is one that cannot be annulled at 
pleasure. A perpetual grant is one which cannot at will be 
recalled. A perpetual union is one which cannot be dissolved 
except on the consent of all the parties to that union. Seces- 



66 

sion is a breach of faith. It is morally a crime, as much as 
the secession of a regiment from the battle-field would be. * * 

3. A third argument against the right of secession is drawn 
from the historical fact, that the right was at first desired by 
some of the states, and formally rejected. New York wished 
to adopt the Constitution on condition that she might be per- 
mitted to withdraAV should she see fit. Madison wrote to 
Hamilton that such a conditional ratification of the Constitu- 
tion was worse than a rejection. New York, therefore, con- 
cluded to come in on the same terms with the other states, with 
the express understanding that there was to be no secession. * * 

4. This may be said to be res adjudicata. All parties are 
committed against the doctrine of secession. When the New 
England states, under the pressure of the embargo laws and of 
the evils to them of the war of 1812, sent delegates to the 
Hartford Convention to consult about the means of redress, the 
measure was condemned with one voice by the dominant party, 
as tending to secession. The Richmond Enquirer, then in the 
height of its influence, the recognized exponent of the princi- 
ples of the Jeffersonian party at the South, elaborately proved 
that no state or number of states had the right to separate from 
the Union unless by the consent of the other states. In 1814, 
that journal held the following language : " No man, no asso- 
ciation of one state or set of states, has a right to withdraw 
from the Union of its own account. The same power which knit 
us together can unknit us. The same formality which formed 
the links of the Union is necessary to dissolve it. The majority 
of the states which formed the Union must consent to the with- 
drawal of any one branch of it. Until that consent has been 
obtained, any attempt to dissolve the Union or distract the efii- 
ciency of its constitutional law, is treason — treason to all intents 
and purposes.'" What was true then is true now. And treason 
by the law of God and man is one of the greatest of crimes. 

5_ * * * y^Q (Jq T^Ql doubt that many excellent men, 
many sincere Christians at the South, have been brought to 
believe that secession is legally and morally right. But it is 
no new thing in the history of the world that great crimes have 
been thought right. There never was an auto dafe which was 
not sanctioned by the ministers of religion. The greatest 
crimes have been perpetrated by those who thought they were 
doing God service. The fact, therefore, that good men approve 
of secession, that they pray over disunion, that they rise from 
their knees and resolve to commit the parricidal act, does not 
prove it to be right. It only proves how perverted the human 
mind may become under the influence of passion and the force 
of popular feeling. 



